Originally Posted by TRENT310

Yep, I was going to make an allusion to the USB-Plus-Power standard but I deleted that section because I was starting to get long winded. I have set up countless PoS terminals which have 2D scanners, pole displays, and printers that run on USB +24V, however devices which use that are typically same-vendor intended for use within a packaged system. Also the D-series Dell laptop docks have such connectors on them, for an external optical drive. In fact I'm looking at a Y cable on my desk right now, for USB+24 that breaks out the data to a regular USB B end and the powered side to a 3 pin DIN for hooking up Epson receipt printers without an additional power brick.

It's still a different connector, basically parked beside the standard USB A connector, and requires a different cable to take advantage of it.
I agree that you see these out there, but you may never see it in widespread deployment on anything other than purpose-built or industrial market hardware. And the point of this was so that it would be convenient and readily available right?

The latest iteration of the USB standard has a voluntary 'Battery Charging' allowance that permits dumb PDs to draw 1.5A and smart PDs up to 5A (whether the device handshakes over the link layer or if it only has the DC pins wired with no data communication at all) and it's over the regular connectors, but since it's voluntary, manufacturers and integrators are free to implement this feature at their own discretion and it may not be available on all devices. I'd be leery of running 5A over the pins on a Micro USB connector though.

Single-vendor systems can be nice to work on and support right when you set it up brand new, but they are subject to vendor forced obsolescence. They can send you an Product EoL notice and you're DONE for support, and if you continue to run the system beyond its (manufacturer defined) product lifecycle -which is almost always done in the real world - maintenance and repair parts costs go up, and support resources are practically nonexistent other than the peer user base. Story of my life as that describes probably the majority of systems I work on.

Originally Posted by 720Deere

Ha-ha, I just got 2 of them yesterday! Our safety incentive program uses wooden nickels with the company logo on them. Each employee gets one per month if they have no safety violations plus one for attending voluntary company meetings or you can get one for making a good suggestion, etc. I received 2 for having the most complete nomination form for employee of the year.

Each nickel is worth $10 and can be used towards the purchase of a variety of items in a display case such as company logo items (hats, T-shirts, sweatshirts, etc), Caterpillar or Mack items, sunglasses, mugs, gift cards and so on. They will even order anything you want from Amazon as long as you have enough nickels to cover the cost. The best part is for every 12.5 (used to be 25 before they doubled the value of the nickels) nickels, you can cash them in for a day off. It blows my mind that the majority of our employees still surrender them at cash value when probably 70% of our work force is above the $15.62/hr threshold of the cash value. They only have a cash value of $10/ea and any time a guy comes in looking to borrow some money, I offer to buy his tokens at $15/ea. Nobody can understand why I am so stupid. They just don't seem to understand their value to me since I use them for a day off. I could pay $20 for them and still make a nice return on my investment!

So for me, accepting wooden nickels is a fantastic thing!

Originally Posted by 92F350CC

Around here we mostly don't have lawns. Lake Mead is a dying reservoir. Vegas is running out of water, so the county has strongly pushed xeriscaping, where you replace your lawn with landscaping that does not require water.

They don't seem to mind my swimming pool though. ROR

Originally Posted by Tofan

Oh boy! Tell me you didn't get rid of the F350 for that thing? Nice pictures though.

Originally Posted by 720Deere

What happened Darren? Was it just like the commercial and the Fiat just drove up out of the water?